Legacy and impact

Jason Ankeny of AllMusic conferred the title of "the fathers of grindcore" on Napalm Death, contending the band broke ground by pushing heavy metal "into new levels of extremity". Jason Birchmeier, also of AllMusic, called Napalm Death "the definitive grindcore band", arguing that the albums Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration "practically alone" define the genre.

Napalm Death coined the blast beat terminology for the famous hardcore punk drum technique. Dave Vincent of influential death metal band Morbid Angel recalls hearing Napalm Death for the first time:

“I remember I was at the Morbid house and Trey came running out of his bedroom, holding up one of the very first Napalm records—it might have been Scum — running out going, ‘Oh, my God, I cannot believe this. Listen to how fast this is. They call this a blast beat.’